The Masquerade
by X5-549
Summary: this sory is written AU and set in their 5th yr. all reviews good and bad r welcome.
1. Chapter 1

**The Masquerade.**

Chapter 1: The Preparations.

"Good evening everyone. Just a short note before everyone tucks into their delicious food. This year the head boy and girl thought it might be good ideas if instead of the usual Halloween feast that we throw a Masquerade Ball, which I thought, would be a lovely idea. The Ball will be in two weeks time on Halloween night. The Ball will be open to the third years and above but the older students may bring a younger student if they wish, but to enter you will need to be wearing a mask, which everyone will remove at midnight to see who the have been dancing with the whole night. Now I think I've rambled on long enough, tuck in." as Dumbledore said this, the plates in front of the magically filled with food.

"Wow Harry, who thought up the whole Masquerade idea you or Padma?" Hermione asked helping herself to some beef stew.

"Yeah mate it's a really good idea," Ron said his mouth half full of food.

"Ronald, don't talk with your mouth full." Hermione said sounding remarkably like Mrs. Weasley.

"Sorry mum," Ron said. "Well come on Harry was it your's or Padma's idea?"

"Actually we both kinda thought of it. I thought we should do something different for Halloween and she thought a ball would be a good way of doing something different and when we pitched it to Dumbledore he suggested we do it as a Masquerade then have everyone remove their masks at the end of the night to help inter-house mingling." Harry explained putting a helping of mashed potatoes on his plate.

"Nice, so you thought about what kinda music is gonna be played? Please tell me it's not going to be The Weird Sisters again?" Ron asked almost begging.

"No I asked Dumbledore about getting a DJ like they have at muggle dances. He said it was a good idea and said he knows a person who made a career of studying muggles and learning their ways of doing things. He said he'd see if he could get a hold of them and see if they were interested in DJ'ing for us." Harry explained tucking into his food.

_MEANWHILE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HALL_

"I can't believe it Draco a Masquerade Ball you won't have to go with that pug-faced bitch Parkinson." Blaise Zabini said to his best friend Draco Malfoy.

"How am I supposed to get out of going with her?" Draco asked hotly.

"Masquerade Ball's are where you have to wear a mask and other than that you can change your hair colour so nobody will ever pick you for being you." Blaise explained gulping down some pumpkin juice to wash his meal.

"Blaise mate you're a life saver, thanks." Draco said. "That whore is driving me crazy; she keeps acting like we're getting married. I never even dated the stupid bitch. So why would she think that we could possibly have a future together?"

"I dunno mate but I feel sorry for you." Blaise said. They spent the rest of the meal talking about the Masquerade Ball.

_ONE WEEK LATER_

Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting in the library finishing off their Potions essay and their transfiguration essay.

"So Harry you asking anybody to go to the Ball with you or are you going by yourself?" Hermione asked looking up from her Ancient Runes homework.

"Nah just gonna rock up by myself, what about you two asking anyone to go with you?"

"Nah just gonna rock up and hopefully they wont know who I am." Ron explained putting his quill down. "One essay down, one to go."

"You might want to change your hair colour then mate it's a dead give to who you are because Ginny isn't as tall as you." Harry said which caused Hermione to snort in laughter which earned them a disapproving glare from Madam Prince.

"What about you Hermione, you taking anyone?" Harry asked rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up more.

"What time did you wake up this morning Harry?" Hermione asked getting all motherly again.

"I dunno 3, 4 o'clock. Why?" Harry asked finishing off his Potions essay.

"Why were awake at that time, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"No reason, just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so I did my Divination homework." Harry explained. "Well Hermione you haven't answered my question yet. Are you going to the ball with someone?"

"No, not even you guys, because I don't think I'm going at all." Hermione said.

"Why not" Harry and Ron exclaimed at the same time.

"Listen if you three can't be quiet I'll have to kick you all out." Madam Prince said.

"Sorry Madam Prince." The trio replied in unison.

"Well Hermione why don't you wanna go?" Harry asked lowering his voice so only Hermione and Ron could hear him.

"Lets go back to the common room we can talk there" Hermione said standing up, grabbing her books, parchment, quills and ink stuffing them into her knapsack. When they got outside Harry and Ron positioned themselves either side of Hermione so she couldn't run somewhere without explaining to them why she didn't want to go to the masquerade ball.

"Well Hermione, why don't you wanna go to the ball?" Ron asked.

"Well for starters I have a lot more homework to do, I'll be left standing around all night because nobody will want to dance with me and I have nothing to wear." Hermione explained walking towards the girl's dormitory. "Listen I'm going to bed, Harry try and get some more sleep tonight remember Hogsmeade trip tomorrow." When she was safely up the steps Harry walked over to one of the tables taking out his Transfiguration essay to finish.

"Ron, come here would you?" Harry called.

"What's up Harry?" Ron asked pulling out his own Transfiguration essay. "I got an idea to make Hermione feel better. Wanna help?" Harry asked uncapping his ink and grabbing his quill.

"Of course, just tell me what I gotta do and I'll do it, anything to make Hermione feel better." Ron answered. At the moment Ginny came through the portrait.

"Oi, Ginny come here" Harry called waving his hand to indicate they needed to talk to her.

"Hey, Harry, hey Ron what's up?" Ginny asked sitting down at their table.

"Ginny, Hermione's feeling a bit upset at the moment and she's planning on not going to the ball, but I have an idea and I need to ask a couple of favours, ok." Harry asked.

"I'm up for it. What do you need me to do?" Ginny asked leaning in closer, so she could hear her part of the plan.

"Well, my plan was because she said she didn't have anything to wear I thought we could buy her the stuff she need, but we need to know what size clothes she wears and because boys can't go up to the girls dormitory we need you to find out for us, do you think you can do that by tomorrow?" Harry asked.

"Of course I can do that, you said a couple of favours what else do you need me to do?" Ginny asked looking eager like a small child about to learn how to play a new game.

"Well I need to find someone who can keep her busy tomorrow but we know nothing about girls clothes and makeup or anything do you think you could help us?" Harry pleaded.

"Definitely, now is there anything else?" Ginny asked standing up.

"Nope the rest I think we can handle. Thanks Ginny you're a lifesaver." Harry said giving Ginny a big hug.

"No problem." Ginny said grabbing her things and rushing off towards the girl's dormitory.

"Now we've got the tricky bit, Ron I need you to get everyone in here's attention, can you do that?" Harry asked turning around to face the rest of the common room.

"Easy," Ron said before whistling so loudly it got everyone's attention.

"Hey everyone can you give me your attention for a minute?" Harry called out standing up on a chair. When everyone was quiet Harry continued. "Listen you all know Hermione Granger don't you? Well we need some help, Ron and I are going to surprise her but we need some help. Can anyone volunteer to keep her busy tomorrow, no offence to the ladies but it would be preferable if the volunteers were male because Hermione's feeling down about her looks, any volunteers?" Harry asked, three hands went up they belonged to Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas. "Thanks guys, and we need a girls help we have Ginny Weasley but Ron and I know nothing about girls clothes and stuff is there a girl or two who can help in that department?" two girls raised their hands Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. "Thanks girls, can the volunteers come here for a minute we need to talk to them? Thanks for your time everyone, we really appreciate you not telling Hermione about this since it's supposed to be a surprise." Harry said stepping down from the chair. Everyone returned to what they had been doing except the volunteers who headed over to them. When they got there they grabbed some chairs, just as they were sitting down around the table Ginny came charging down the girl's dormitory steps carrying some of Hermione's clothes.

"Hey guys, I see you guys got some help." Ginny said depositing the clothes on the table and grabbed a seat. Seeing the looks of confusion being directed at the clothes and her, she explained. "I asked Hermione if I could borrow some clothes for the Masquerade Ball so I didn't feel guilty about taking her clothes without asking. So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Ginny asked looking at Harry.

"Well Dean, Neville, Seamus, Ron do you think you can entertain her tomorrow? Because if you think you can the girls and I will go get everything…." Harry said but stopped mid-sentence because he saw someone carrying one of Hermione's S.P.E.W collection tins. It was a raven haired, green eyed 5'2" girl who's name was Dawn she was one of Ginny's best friends.

"Hey Dawn what you got there?" Ron asked pulling a seat up beside him as it was the only unoccupied space.

"I heard what you're planing and I wanted to help." Dawn opened the tin and out poured heaps of money enough that now it wouldn't take as much to pay for Hermione's stuff. They all looked at her like she was some kind of god or something.

Why are you doing this Dawn?" Seamus asked. "Not that we're not thankful."

"Well Hermione has helped me with my homework and I didn't know how to repay her so I thought I'd help you guys with your plan and I heard what Hermione said when you walked in, and I've heard her say she feels like no guy would ever look at her, but I've seen guys staring at her, and she's one of those people who'd do it for you." Dawn said confidently.

"Thanks Dawn thanks heaps. You're a great friend and a true Gryffindor." Harry said giving her a hug around the shoulders, Dawn didn't even blush or act giddy, she had met Harry and Hermione the summer before the war had started and the previous summer since the war had ended.

_THE NEXT DAY_

Hermione, Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus had gone off to have Butterbeer's to give Harry, Ginny, Lavender and Parvati time to get started. The had worked out that Ginny would be the lookout for the shopping group and Seamus would be lookout for the diversion group, each lookout kept their eyes peeled for a sign of the other group and was their job to make sure Hermione did not see the shopping group otherwise it would raise to many questions. So the shopping group went about their business but they made sure to buy things for themselves in different bags so they could put the things they bought in their bags in them so it wasn't a dead giveaway. Four hours later they had bought everything they would need, they had made plans with the other group to meet up at the Shrieking Shack an 1:30 pm which meant they had half an hour to get there so they decided to head off.

When they got there the other group still hadn't shown up but Malfoy, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle were there.

"Is it me or did it just start to smell around here?" Blaise said when he heard them approaching me.

"Yeah, and it stinks like murderer." Draco replied, Harry had killed Draco's Father Lucius in the final battle to get to Voldemort.

"Sod off Malfoy," Harry said tiredly, Draco had been saying this kind of thing since Lucius had been killed.

"Why don't you make me scum?" Draco said turning around with a malicious look in his eyes.

"Do you wanna fight me Malfoy?" Harry said his temper rising.

"Harry calm down," Hermione whispered putting her hand on his shoulder.

"You gonna get your mudblood girlfriend to fight your fights for you are you Potter?" Blaise said stepping up next to Draco.

"You say that again and I will get you back for it Blaise," Ron said in a voice that sounded like gravel rumbling in his throat.

"Oi, Draco I reckon the mudblood must be sleeping with both of them don't you?" Blaise said.

"Yeah, seems like it, the control she has over, them she must threaten never to fuck 'em again, if they don't do what she says." Draco replied turning to face the Shrieking Shack again.

Harry was doing everything he could not to kill Draco there and then, everyone of Harry's friends were stepping away so if his temper did explode they wouldn't be in it's path, everyone that is except Hermione who was still trying to get Harry to turn around and go back to the castle. Only Hermione and Ron had seen Harry's temper in full flare.

_**FLASHBACK**_

_Harry faced Voldemort in the drawing room of the old Riddle House Remus Lupin, Ron, Hermione and some of Harry's other friend's and school mates, Order member's and Ministry workers were holding off most of the Death Eaters, only Voldemort's most loyal servant's had been in the drawing room when he arrived they included; Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter Pettigrew, Harry had killed Lucius and Bellatrix with the killing curse Tom had killed Peter and in turn been killed by Voldemort. Harry had sealed the door and turned around just in time to dodge a flash of green which had been aimed dead centre at his heart, he stood and set himself read to throw the spell he had been learning that would trap Voldemort's soul in his body when it was destroyed thereby destroying him forever._

"_Exitum Corpus Corporis Animus!" Harry yelled pointing his wand dead at Voldemort who was struck with a pitch black light which seeped into his body, slowly his body started to expand and with the speed of light everything that had expanded sucked inward again and simply ceased to exist with a deafening bang. Harry heard all noise stop and the door open just before his legs crumpled and his world went black._

_Harry had been so angry when he woke up that his room at St Mungo's had barely survived, his temper had caused the room's walls to crack and break apart. It had seemed that when he destroyed Voldemort all Voldemort's power's had flowed into the nearest human being which turned out to be Harry._

_**END FLASHBACK**_

"Draco, call her that once more and you'll end up like your father, six foot deep, three foot across." Harry snarled, before stalking off carrying his bags.

Soon the rest of the group caught up to him, he had managed to calm himself by this time and no longer wanted to snap at anybody who even looked at him.

"Harry, are you ok? You were getting pretty upset back there and I was starting to worry, your not gonna lose control over your powers are you?" Hermione asked walking beside Harry. Harry moved the bag he was carrying in the hand closet to her into his other hand and put his arm around her shoulders.

"I'm fine Hermione; I'm not going to lose control anytime soon. So don't worry it'll all be ok." Harry said, he was walking up towards Hogwarts. "Are you lot coming back up to the castle?"

"Yeah!" everyone called. This was the part of the plan that was going to be the toughest part of the plan, trying to convince Hermione to go and not just return everything to the shops they had bought them from and convincing her to go to the Ball not just put everything away and never wear it again.

_GRYFFINDOR TOWER_

When they got back to the Gryffindor Tower they made Hermione sit down on the couch, so they could show her what they had bought her.

"Guy's what's going on?" Hermione asked looking at each of them in turn.

"Hermione, you the other night when you said you weren't going to the Masquerade Ball because you didn't have anything to wear?" Harry asked sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

"Among other reason's yes, why?" Hermione asked starting to look a bit worried about what they had gone and done.

"Yeah, well we got you something to wear," Harry said handing her the many bags they had brought up with them. Hermione slowly looked through each bag looking at everything without touching it.

"There's something else," Lavender said as Parvati pulled something out of her jacket pocket, it was a black velvet box about 4 inches wide by 7 inches long. Hermione took, it in hands that shook, when she opened it there was a mask inside.

"This…this is… this is amazing, all of it. Why did you do this?" Hermione asked awe struck.

"You're our friend Hermione and you of all people deserve to go out and have a good time. So now will you go now please?" Parvati said, with everyone nodding in agreement.

"Okay I'll go." Hermione said standing up. "But right now I'm gonna take this all upstairs and do some homework."


	2. The Ball

Chapter 2: The Ball

The ball was in full swing when Hermione arrived everyone stopped dancing, even the music stopped, the moment she entered and the whispers began almost immediately "Who is she?" "What house is she from?" "Who's she going to dance with?" Hermione smiled to herself and thought _'I can't believe it nobody knows who I am'._ She was wearing a black dress the bodice of it was corseted giving her a bit of cleavage and fitted her perfectly, the skirt flowed beautifully it was designed so that when she spun it would open up in to a circle revealing her new shoes which were black heels, she wore her mask like she had been born it. Her hair was straightened and was half up half down, the half that was up was in a bun and the half that was down and straight except for a few strands which had refused to straighten. As she walked into the Great Hall the music began again but only one person was game to come up to ask her to dance, he had neat jet black hair and was wearing a black tuxedo with a black silk shirt and white silk tie his mask was white and resembled the Phantom of the Opera mask.

"May I have this dance?" the guy asked extending his hand towards her, he sounded familiar but Hermione couldn't place where from.

"You may," Hermione replied accepting his hand, _'god this guy smells good.'_ Hermione thought to herself,

"Now ladies and gentlemen a song for all those couples out there," DJ Max said playing a slow song.

Hermione and her mystery guy danced together holding onto each other, Hermione turned her face up to look at what she could see of his face when he caught her lips with his. It was amazing; it was as though they had been kissing each other for years not minutes.

_MIDNIGHT_

Hermione and the Mystery Guy had been dancing all night when Dumbledore took the stage like he had at the beginning of the night.

"I hope everyone has had a good night," Dumbledore said as silence fell over the crowd. "Now as I said when I first announced this Ball midnight means mask's off. Now on the count of three everyone remove their masks. 1, 2, 3,"

As everyone removed their masks gasps emanated from everyone. But the biggest shock came when everyone realised who the two mysterious lovers in the middle of the room were, as Hermione removed her mask her mystery guy removed his, as he pulled his mask the hair colour changing spells were removed to show platinum blond hair. When Hermione looked back up at her mystery guy's face she knew exactly who it was she was looking at...Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy" Hermione yelled it still hadn't dawned on him who she was so Hermione ran out of the Great Hall and back to the Gryffindor common room. Sitting down on the couch in front of the hearth as people slowly drifted in from the Great Hall they spotted Hermione and realised she was the mystery girl who had been dancing with Draco Malfoy all night long.

"Um Hermione, can I ask you something?" Ron asked sitting down next to her.

"Go for it," Hermione replied.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Ron asked.

"You're not upset because I was dancing with Malfoy?" Hermione asked looking at Ron with a look of shock.

"Nope, nobody knew it was him, and it's torturing him not knowing who you are." Ron replied grinning evilly.

"Ron don't do that, I feel bad enough as it is." Hermione said looking down.

"Why on earth would you feel bad about torturing ferret-face? You don't like him do you?" Ron asked.

"I…I…I don't know Ron he seemed so different tonight. He didn't sneer at anyone or smirk. He seemed, almost, sweet." Hermione replied.

"You've got to be kidding me sweet, ferret-face please don't tell me he slipped you Essence of Insanity?" Ron pleaded.

"Ron you know there's no such thing as Essence of Insanity or Fred and George would've given it to you years ago, and would now be selling it in their shop." Hermione said.

"Okay, but still are you going crazy, Ferret-face is an evil little snot face." Ron said.

"Ron I know that, but, he seemed different tonight, like a normal person, not like a Malfoy." Hermione said trying to convince Ron she wasn't going crazy.

_MEANWHILE IN THE SLYTHERIN COMMON ROOM_

'I dunno who she is or nothing, how am I supposed to find her again?' Draco asked himself for the hundredth time.

"Hey Draco, how did it feel dancing with that mudblood?" Blaise asked sinking into the couch next to Draco.

"What do you mean 'Mudblood'?"

"You don't know who it was?" Blaise asked totally shocked.

"No, who was it?" Draco asked becoming very angry that Blaise was taking so long to tell him who it was.

"It was Granger, couldn't you tell?"

"Granger? That was Hermione Granger?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Aftermath

_***************************The Day After***************************_

Hermione lay on her bed after her alarm went off staring at the canopy of her bed thinking about the pervious night. _Draco, I can't believe it was Draco. He was so different, so not like Malfoy. But more like a normal human. And he was so hot, his muscles felt so firm underneath his suit. OH GOD!!!! I didn't just think that. I cant be having feelings for Draco it's…it's…so…not right. _

_********************Meanwhile in the Slytherin Dorm*******************_

Draco lay in his bed having been awoken by dreams of the dance and how things with Hermione could've gone differently. _God she felt so good pressed up against me, god I knew I wanted her we should have left early gone to a classroom and talked to her shown her that the hatred was an act for my family's sake. God I find my love and it turns out to be a person who will never trust me. _

_****************************At Breakfast***************************_

Draco entered the Great Hall for breakfast and looked around for Hermione, when he spotted her she was sitting between Ron and Harry. He decided to wait until later to speak to her as he knew that the Gryfindor quidditch had booked the pitch for the afternoon.

The day passed slowly, and Draco was constantly on edge he and people kept giving him weird looks. Draco was aimlessly roaming the grounds when he tripped over someone who was lying near the lake.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry I was off in my own little world and didn't see…" Draco stopped when he saw whom he had tripped over. Hermione was sitting there staring at him and Ron and Harry were glaring daggers at him.

"Get away from her ferret," Ron said with venom in his voice.

"I'm sorry Hermione." Draco said as he got up and walked away.

"What the Hell was that?" Harry asked.

"Ron that was very rude of you." Hermione chided standing and walking of in the direction Draco went.

"Draco!" Hermione called when he was within sight. "Draco please wait."

Draco stopped in the middle of the grounds and waited, "What Hermione?"

"Draco, listen I'm sorry about the other night. I realise it was wrong of me to run off like that."

"Save your apologies for someone who deserves them Hermione," came another voice. It was Blaise he had followed them and he was now looking at her with a predatory glint in his eyes.

"Zabini, what are you doing?" Draco asked.

"Same thing as you, chasing the woman I want." Blaise growled darting forward grabbing Hermione by the arm.

"Let go of me," Hermione yelled trying to yank her arm away from Blaise's grip but it was too tight.

"Not a chance Herms." Blaise growled pulling her towards him.

"Let her go Blaise, NOW!" Draco said stepping forward to defend Hermione.

"Come on Draco, I can share." Blaise replied.

"Let her go, Blaise. I'll curse from here to Avalon and back." Draco threatened in a deadly quiet voice as he drew out his wand.

"You wouldn't dare," Blaise laughed as drew Hermione in front of him like a human shield.

Draco stood there facing Blaise trying to think of a way to get Hermione away from Blaise when he noticed that Harry was approaching at a run and Ron was following closely behind. When Harry was within hearing range he lifted his wand and cried "Accio Hermione Granger." Hermione flew into Draco's waiting arms. As Harry noticed what was going on and shot a stunning spell at Blaise…Just as Professor MacGonagall and Professor Snape walked around the corner.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor." Snape bellowed rushing to wake up Blaise. No one noticed that Hermione was shaking violently as Draco cradled her.

"Professor Snape give them back there points." Draco said surprising everyone.

"Why should I do that Draco?" Snape asked momentarily forgetting about reviving Blaise.

"Blaise was attacking Hermione, I would have stunned him but he was using her as a human shield, so I summoned her to me giving Harry time to stun him. So that he couldn't continue too try and molest Hermione." Draco explained to the astonishment of everyone.


End file.
